


Muggle Video Games

by protectoroffaeries



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Call of Duty: Black Ops, M/M, i tried to make it shippy at the end, the first one, video games - Freeform, xbox
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 12:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7714126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectoroffaeries/pseuds/protectoroffaeries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Potter kids teach Scorpius how to play Call of Duty: Black Ops.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Muggle Video Games

**Author's Note:**

> The inspiration for this fic comes from my cousin. He wanted to play multiplayer on Black Ops all day today. We shot each other, CPUs, and zombies. 
> 
> Lily's annoying ability to beat everyone every time is inspired by my own sibling who does the same. 
> 
> Also, I could not, for the life of me, think about which button does what when you play Call of Duty on Xbox (I was playing it on an Xbox One today, but I never do specify if it's an Xbox 360 or One in this fic). I had to keep picking up the controller and miming what to do, and my family was like "What?" and I was like "For the fic!"
> 
> I'm supposed to be doing about 100 other things right now, but instead I did this because this was a lot more fun. Hope you enjoy!

The first time Scorpius goes over to Albus Potter’s house, he learns about Muggle video games. 

It’s a long time coming, the house visit. Not the Muggle video games; Scorpius doesn’t think much about them before he goes to Albus’. He’s only heard about them in passing. He’s more concerned about how Albus’ family will perceive him. Will his parents like Scorpius? Will his siblings? He should have dropped by years ago, being Albus’ best friend and all, but somehow it’s been put off until now - the summer before sixth year. 

Scorpius is unspeakably nervous. His father tells him not to worry and gives him a reassuring - if not slightly awkward - pat on the shoulder. Albus’ letter tells him to just Floo to the Potter’s on the 13th of July, and his father reminds him to enunciate so that he doesn’t tumble out of some other fireplace. Scorpius has never messed up Flooing before, but he suspects that his father worries this time because of Scorpius’ restless nerves. 

Luckily, Scorpius keeps his voice even and strong, and he ends up in the right spot - thank Merlin. Albus is waiting there for him in what Scorpius assumes is the living room. His face lights up as soon as he sees Scorpius, which is an exact mirror of Scorpius’ elation at seeing his best friend. 

“Here, I’ll get your trunk,” Abus says, grabbing it and pulling it from the fireplace before Scorpius can protest. “Follow me,” he adds, and then Albus leaves the room. Scorpius shuffles after him, desperately hoping that he didn’t just leave ash all over the Potter’s living room. 

Scorpius follows Albus up a flight of stairs and down a hall with many rooms branching off of it. Only one door is open, and Scorpius peers in it as he and Albus pass it. It looks like his siblings are watching something on that Muggle contraption - the TV. Albus talks about it sometimes. Scorpius doesn’t have one at his house, but he assumes he’ll get to watch one while he’s here. 

“What are they watching?” Scorpius asks as they continue on down the hall. Albus stops at the very last door and gives it a little kick. The door swings open, and Albus goes in and sets Scorpius’ trunk at the foot of the bed. It’s very obviously Albus’ room, with Slytherin green clothing items scattered all over the place. Scorpius steps over a scarf - why he has a scarf out in the middle of July, Scorpius doesn’t know - and examines a picture on the wall. It’s of him and Albus from last winter - they’re bundled up and giggling about something. Scorpius smiles at it. 

“James and Lily are playing a video game,” Albus says, answering Scorpius’ earlier question. 

“A what?” Scorpius turns away from the picture to see that Albus has collapsed on his bed and is sprawled out like a giant cat. 

“A video game,” repeats Albus, like Scorpius is supposed to know what that means. 

“Um…”

Albus sits upright, going from relaxed to alert in a surprisingly short fraction of a second. “You’ve never played a video game.”

“Uh, no…”

Albus hops off his bed and grabs Scorpius by the wrist without any explanation. Scorpius doesn’t resist as he’s dragged back down the hall and into the room where James and Lily are playing this mysterious video game thing. 

Now that Scorpius has a moment to actually take in the room, he notices that besides the large, pillowy couch that James and Lily are sitting on and an equally large and pillowy chair, there isn’t any other furniture. There is obviously a TV, and it’s sitting on top of a what looks to be a… cabinet? There are things spilling out from the open doors of the cabinet - from colorful wires to plastic rectangles with still pictures on them. 

“Mum just organized all those games,” Albus says with a frown. He’s looking at those plastic rectangles. 

“Blame Lily,” James grunts. He and Lily have their eyes glued to the TV, and they each have something in their hands that their fingers dance over expertly.  James’ is red, and Lily’s is pink. 

“Blame Mum,” Lily retorts. “She’s the one that put Call of Duty on the bottom of the stack.”

Albus rolls his eyes. “Scorpius has never played a video game,” he says.

Scorpius feels a wave of embarrassment as James and Lily both tear their eyes away from the TV to give Scorpius looks of shock. Then, in an instant, their gazes snap back to the TV - to the video game - and Lily shouts, “Yes! Headshot!”

“Bitch,” James grumbles. Scorpius is discomforted to hear him call his little sister such a thing - he’s never heard Albus refer to her that way - but none of the siblings seem disturbed by this response. 

“Can Scorpius and I play next round?” Albus asks.

“Sure. I’m about done kicking James’ ass anyway,” Lily says offhandedly. 

“He can use Teddy’s controller - it’s in the basket,” adds James. 

Albus plucks a small basket from where it’s sitting next to the TV. He hands Scorpius an oddly shaped grey… thing with bunch of little buttons on it. And wolf stickers. It has more sticker depicting artistically interpreted wolves stuck to it than buttons.  

“What do I do with this?” Scorpius looks up from the peculiar device and notices that Albus has a similar one in his own hands, except his is dark green and lacking wolf stickers. 

“It’s an Xbox controller,” Albus says, and before Scorpius can ask what an Xbox is, Albus points to a black box sitting on the top shelf of the open cabinet. “That is the Xbox. It’s called a console, and it has to be connected to the TV before you can play video games.”

“Oh. What about that white box next to it?’ 

“That’s a Wii. It’s a different kind of console. It requires different controllers.” Albus motions to the basket he retrieved the Xbox controllers from, and Scorpius looks into see longer, more stick-like things with buttons on them, although they’re considerably thicker than a wizard’s wand. 

“Okay. But… I guess we’re playing this one?” Scorpius asks dumbly. 

“Yes, we’re going to play Call of Duty: Black Ops with James and Lily when they’re done their round.”

“I have no idea what you just said,” Scorpius says honestly, and Albus laughs. 

“I never thought I’d see the day when I knew something you didn’t,” he replies. “Call of Duty is a series of first person shooter games - please hold all questions until the end, Mr. Malfoy,” he adds when Scorpius opens his mouth to tell him he doesn’t know what that means, either. 

Scorpius shuts his mouth. “Basically, you’ve got a gun. Look.” He puts down his controller and sandwiches Scorpius’ head between his hands. Then he directs Scorpius until he’s looking at the TV. “You see how the screen is split in half on that line there? And different stuff is happening on the top and bottom?”

“Yes,” Scorpius says.

“Okay, well, James is controlling the gun on the top,” he says, and Scorpius stares at the monstrous metallic device that’s letting off a bright light and loud noise that sounds like a miniature explosion. “He’s trying to shoot Lily. That’s the object of the game - to kill anyone who’s not on your team.”

“We’re playing one on one,” Lily says. “But when you and Albus start playing, you’ll be on someone’s team. Your teammates have green lettering over their heads.” Scorpius watches the lower half of the screen - Lily, he supposes - and the gun on that half points at an unsuspecting person in a dark outfit. Red lettering appears over their head, and Lily shoots. James swears beside her, and +100 appears in yellow lettering above her gun, along with the word  _ Payback _ . “And your targets have red,” she finishes.

“It seems… violent,” Scorpius says hesitantly. He’s not very familiar with guns beyond knowing that they’re a Muggle weapon, but obviously a game where the object is murder is violent. Right?

Albus shrugs. “It’s just a game. And look, James is already back.” He’s right about that. Scorpius watches the disembodied hands carry James’ large gun across a snowy bridge. 

“How do you win if you… just come back to life?” Scorpius asks. 

“Your team gets points for every kill you make,” Albus says. “You can see in the corner there how many points each of them have. You can set it up so that you play either on a time limit, like they have, or until one player achieves a certain amount of points.”

Scorpius turns his gaze to the corner of James’ half of the screen. There are green and red bars. The green has the number 1200 on it, and the red one has the number 600 on it. Above the bars, it says LOSING in red lettering, and above that there are numbers counting down. Scorpius flicks his gaze lower to see the same configuration in Lily’s corner, except with the word WINNING in green. 

Scorpius looks down at the controller in his hands. “How do I use this to control that?”

Instead of explaining the mechanics of video games verbally, Albus comes around behind him, and he lays hands over Scorpius’. He’s close, so close that Scorpius can feel Albus’ breath on the side of his neck. He maneuvers his head so that it’s above Scorpius’ left shoulder. He’s very close. 

Scorpius tries not to think about how he  _ might  _ be attracted to Albus because now is certainly not the time for those thoughts. 

“You move your character by using this stick,” Albus says, and he moves Scorpius’ left thumb over a wiggly button by nudging with his own hand. Scorpius wiggles the - what did Albus call it? A stick? It doesn’t look like a stick. “Now, press down on it and move it.” Scorpius does. “That would make your character run, but you can’t shoot while running, so be careful.”

“This is how you shoot,” continues Albus. He moves Scorpius’  left index finger to rest on a button that’s almost on the back of the controller. “This is right trigger. Press and shoot.” Scorpius presses down on the button. He expects something to happen - flash of light or a loud noise - but of course, nothing does, because he isn’t playing yet. 

“You reload your gun by pressing X.” He moves Scorpius’ right thumb to a circular  blue button with an X on it. “Writing will appear on the screen that’ll tell you to reload, so just follow those directions for now.”

“Reload?”

“Guns don’t have an endless supply of bullets. You have to put more in as you use them.”

“Oh.”

“You jump by pressing A - use your right thumb for that, too.” Albus’ hair brushes against Scorpius’ cheek as he leans over to check and make sure Scorpius has moved his thumb to the A button. Scorpius resists the suddenly strong urge to nuzzle against his hair. That would be weird. And awkward. 

“That’s basically all you need to know to begin with,” Albus says. 

“But there are so many other buttons.”

“Press Y to switch weapons,” interjects Lily from the couch. Scorpius almost jumps - he forgot that there were others in the room. “You’ve got more than one gun… or perhaps a rocket launcher.”

“A what?”

“Lily, the last thing Scorpius needs is a rocket launcher.”

“Show him how to knife kill,” James says. 

Albus sighs, like he doesn’t think it’s necessary, but says, “Okay, you see the other stick?” Scorpius puts his right thumb on the “stick” that isn’t used for walking. “If you press down on it, you’ll swing your knife.” Scorpius presses down on the little stick. “Also, if you need to look around without moving about, you just swivel that right stick.”

“I thought it was a gun game?” Albus steps away from him, done teaching. Scorpius is not disappointed. Or so he tells himself. 

“It mostly is. Occasionally James manages to stab me, but Lily never lets him get that close to her,”

“Is Lily the best at this game?”

“Yes,” all three of them say in different tones - James sounds annoyed, Lily sounds triumphant, and Albus sounds exasperated. 

“How are we splitting teams?” Albus asks his siblings. They’re done playing their round. The screen says that Lily’s won with a score of 1800, whereas James got a score of 1100. 

“Scorpius can be on my team,” Lily says, and her brothers both stare at her. Honestly, Scorpius is surprised, too. She’s the best, and he’s going to be terrible at this. What if he causes her to lose?

“Really?” James sounds excited, like he hopes Scorpius will do just that. 

Lily smiles devilishly at her brother. “Sure. It’ll be nice to kick both of your asses at the same time.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Scorpius announces, but that doesn’t stop Lily’s grin. She’s admirably confident in her video game skills. 

“I know.” She looks at James. “Get off the couch. Only winners are allowed on the couch.”

James grumbles something under his breath, but he does as she says. Apparently, that’s an actual rule when there are too many people all get a seat. Lily pats the couch beside her, and Scorpius hesitates for a moment before taking James’ spot. James shoots him a glare. 

Albus sits down beside James and smacks his brother on the side of the head, which causes James to turn his glare on Albus. 

Lily leans over and presses a big button on the center of Scorpius’ controller. Albus hadn’t told him what that button does, but it lights up, and Lily doesn’t say anything about it, so he guesses it’s not all that important once they start playing the game. 

“What map, Lily?” asks Albus. 

“Nuketown,” Lily answers, “but first I have to help Scorpius create his own customs.”

“He can just use Teddy’s. He’s already using Teddy’s controller and profile,” James says.

Scorpius has no idea what they’re talking about, so he just sits there silently. 

“Teddy uses shotguns,” Albus says. “You can’t start Scorpius off with the shotguns.”

“Oh, it’s not like he’ll know the difference,” says James, like Scorpius isn’t literally sitting right behind him. Albus smacks him on the head again. 

“I can handle the shotguns,” Scorpius says, though he’s not sure why. He probably can’t actually handle them, but he supposes he doesn’t like the way James dismissed him. All three of them look at him, and he feels himself flush a bit. 

“Scorpius-” begins Albus, but James cuts him off. “You heard him, Lily. He can handle the shotguns. Set him up with Olympia or something and let’s get to it.”

“I’ll give him the Stakeout,” says Lily, and she takes Scorpius’ controller and uses it to do… something. 

“Are we good then?” James says impatiently.

“We’re good,” Lily confirms. “Ten minutes on the clock. Albus, there are attack dogs.” 

Scorpius doesn’t like that sound of that, or the gleeful, “Thanks, Lily,” that Albus says in response. 

“You won’t get a chance to use them,” Lily vows. 

The game starts, except instead of the screen being split in half, it’s split into fourths. Lily tells him what to press and how to press those things. Scorpius doesn’t know why he’s pressing them, but he trusts her. They’re on a team, after all. “Keep your eyes on the bottom left,” instructs Lily. Scorpius focuses on his little square. He’s got his own pair of disembodied hands, and they’re hold a huge gun - a shotgun? 

Scorpius uses the right stick to look around. There’s a yellow house in front of him. A person runs in front of him, but green writing that says LLP2008 flashes over their head. Green means teammate, so he doesn’t try to do anything. 

“You need to move, Scorpius,” urges Lily. Scorpius uses the other stick to take a step forward. And then another. And another. He walks to a doorway into the yellow house, and is promptly shot in the head. James cackles. 

“Press X,” Lily says, sounding unconcerned. Scorpius follows her directions. 

Scorpius appears behind the yellow house again. This time he decides to go up a flight of wooden stairs. He looks around - there’s a bedroom with bunk beds in it, and a view of the street beyond the house. It’s cluttered with vehicles. Scorpius turns the character to leave the room to find someone else standing there. He sees the red lettering, and he quickly pulls the trigger. +100 appears on his little section of the screen.

“Dammit, Albus!” grouses James. Albus just shrugs. 

“Nice kill, Scorpius,” Lily says. 

Scorpius tries not be unsettled by the thought of killing Albus and utterly fails. He resolves to ignore that, too. It’s just a game, after all. 

Scorpius gets three more kills - Albus twice more, and James once. Scorpius suspects that James was his only genuine kill, as it was a sudden, unexpected, and ironic use of the knife. He just pressed down on the stick when James got to close, and his little bout of panic paid off. 

He gets killed far more times than that. James shoots him no less than seven times, and Albus does three times. Each of them got Lily twice, but Lily absolutely destroyed both of them. She killed James six times and Albus eight times. 

“Guess we get to keep the couch,” Lily gloats, grinning at her brothers. “Unless somebody wants to switch teams?”

“Yeah, let Albus and his boyfriend be on the same team,” James says. 

Scorpius goes red, and Albus punches James - hard. James rubs his arm, but he’s smirking at Albus. “Did I hit a nerve?”

“I’m about to hit your face.”

“Aren’t you going to stop them?” Scorpius whispers to Lily.

Lily snorts. “Nope.”

***

James and Albus don’t actually fight, thank Merlin. Scorpius just switches spots with James and plays on Albus’ team. He likes to get close to people and stab them with the knife, and he’s pretty good at it. At least when it comes to stabbing James. Lily - he never manages to kill Lily. Half the time when she kills him, Scorpius doesn’t even know where her shots came from. Albus calls her a  _ sniper _ . 

When Mrs. Potter calls them down for dinner, Albus holds Scorpius back for a second. 

“So, uh, did you like the game?”

“Yes… but I still think it’s violent,” Scorpius says, thinking back to how bloodied the screen becomes if the character’s been shot or blown up. 

“Yeah… maybe it wasn’t the best one to start you with,” admits Albus. “But I couldn’t exactly kick James and Lily out.”

“I had fun,” Scorpius assures him. 

“Yeah, well, I guess you did get to stab James,” Albus says with grin. “That is always a good time.”

Scorpius laughs. 

“So… um, I hope James didn’t… make you uncomfortable with that boyfriend comment,” Albus says awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. He’s not looking Scorpius in the eye, which is definitely intentional. 

“No. People think that all the time, anyway, so it’s not like it’s nothing I haven’t heard,” Scorpius says with a shrug. It did make him a bit uncomfortable when people asked at school if they’re dating, but Scorpius isn’t about to go into that much depth.

Albus’ eyes snap up. “What? They do?”

“Yes…”

Albus freezes. “Maybeweshouldmaketherumorstrue.”

“I have no idea what you just said,” Scorpius says slowly, hoping that little fit wasn’t a negative reaction from Albus. 

Albus takes a deep breath. “Maybe we should make the rumors true.”

Scorpius blinks. He wonders if Albus is joking, but from the look on his best friend’s face, he doesn’t think so. “Are you asking me out?”

“Yes!”

“Oh.  _ Oh _ . Yeah, of course.”

“Really? So… you’re not interested in Lily…?”

Scorpius cocks his head to the side. “Where did you get that idea?”

“Well… I guess… she seemed like she was flirting with you, and you went along with it...”

“I wasn’t flirting with him! I was proving that I could beat you and James regardless of who was on my team!” shouts Lily from the hallway, and both Scorpius and Albus jump

“Lily! Go away!”

“My boyfriend comment was prophetic,” James shouts. He’s also in the hall, apparently. Scorpius’ face reaches an all time high on the redness scale. 

“Fuck off!” Albus shouts, and both of his sibling laugh. A far off shout comes from downstairs - it’s Mrs. Potter hollering “Language!”

Albus looks royally pissed, and for a second, Scorpius thinks he’s going to storm off to give his siblings a piece of his mind. Then, unexpectedly, he grabs Scorpius by his shirt and pulls him forward into a kiss. It’s really just a quick press of lips, but it leaves Scorpius’ head spinning when Albus lets go. 

“What was that for?” Scorpius murmurs, touching his lips with his fingers. 

“I refuse to let my _obnoxious siblings_ ,” he raises his voice a little so said obnoxious siblings can hear him, “ruin the moment.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever!” James hollers back. “Just keep the shagging short, okay? I want to eat sometime tonight!”

Albus rolls his eyes. “We’re coming,” he says.

“TMI!” squeals Lily, and then Scorpius hears her footsteps as she runs down the hall, probably disparate to get away from her brothers before the register the joke she made. 

“Lily? Lily! Where did you learn about that?” James calls after her, right on cue. 

Albus’ face is as red as Scorpius’ surely is, but he’s also laughing. “Come on, let’s go down to dinner before James outs us to Mum and Dad,” Albus says. “Lily’s bought us a minute, but it won’t last long.”

Albus holds out his hand, and Scorpius takes it. They smile at each other and head for the stairs.  

**Author's Note:**

> Albus' way of teaching Scorpius how to use the buttons is far more complicated than sitting next to him and pointing, but I suppose it was a bit of an excuse to get really close to Scorpius. I can respect that.


End file.
